I'm a puzzle maker in Newington and read the article about you in the Courant on Monday and found it very interesting. I decided to see if I could imitate the cutting pattern you used in the featured puzzle. I found if I added a few wobbles along all the edge pieces they would interlock.

One idea I've been playing with is to "gang cut" two puzzles and what you see below is an example of this. This 2 x 31-piece "double puzzle" will be a gift to a friend and all 62 pieces will be mixed in the box. In this case, since the images are so different, it will be obvious fairly quickly that they have been given two puzzles. The low piece count will make this pretty easy to assemble as well.

The picture will be meaningful to the recipient because she morphed the cats, kid and birds herself. Their names are mentioned in the silly computer program on the black and white image. I am a programmer as well as a puzzle maker and have recently become interested in the language this program is written in (tiny-c/PC, a stripped down C).

The puzzles are standard letter size and made of 1/8" wood.

I've played around with a name that describes that distinctive "two bump" nob you use and I mentioned "ET" to my wife. She wasn't too taken by it.

Have you ever needed somebody to cut for you during especially busy times? I've been doing puzzles ever since I retired (I'm 65), like it a lot, certainly have a long way to go to get up to your caliber but just thought I'd ask.

I've imitated John Stokes' "swirl curl" pattern too. He's been very helpful to me and we've corresponded off an on for quite some time.

- Lee Bradley